Bad Weather, Who Cares? These Players Haven't Let Rainouts Affect Their Play

With the abundance of bad weather to start off the spring season, area baseball and softball teams—for lack of a better way of putting it—have struggled just to get their feet wet.

Numerous games have been washed away due to the immense amount of rainfall and even practicing outside has turned into a luxury. As a result, teams have been forced to practice indoors in whatever dry space they can find: gyms, cafeterias, storage closets…well maybe not storage closets.

Either way, practicing inside where there are no bad hops when you field the ball or dirt to dig your feet into when you step up to the plate, it’s understandable that a lot of players are having trouble regaining their feel for the game—it’s something that comes with being outside for awhile.

Catonsville head coach Rich Hambor said just the other day—after his team completed a five-inning, Siberian-weather filled game—that he was just thrilled just to be outdoors so his players could start to find a rhythm and get back in the swing of things.

However, while some have struggled out of the gate, here are a couple softball and baseball players whose ability—and more importantly, their timing—has not been interrupted by the weather. In fact, they’ve helped their teams by starting out on absolute tears to begin the year.

Maude McCourry, Pitcher, Lansdowne

As the Vikings primary hurler, the 11th-grade McCourry is absolutely vital to Lansdowne’s hopes of reaching the state finals this year. To open the season, McCourry has helped fuel her squad’s 3-0 start, coming away with the victory in all three games, wins over Woodlawn, Fallston and Mount de Sales.

In a total of 21 innings pitched, McCourry has let up all of two runs and six hits—good enough for a microscopic  0.86 earned run average. 

Oh, and by the way, seven of those innings came during McCourry’s perfect game (21 hitters up, 21 hitters retired) against Woodlawn.

The junior has several pitches in her arsenal and she throws them all well. It also doesn’t hurt that McCourry doesn’t feel like she has to strike out every hitter, with such a solid defense making plays behind her.

Robert Hopp, 1B, Catonsville

Although the Comets have only been able to play two games (against Pikesville and New Town) so far this season, Hopp’s hitting has helped his team capture wins in both of them. Catonsville has accounted for 28 runs in just 12 innings and the senior is a big reason why.

To begin the year, Hopp is batting .875 (7 for 8) with four doubles and eight runs driven in hitting out of the No. 3 hole in the lineup.

Making him even more dangerous, Hopp has already proven his ability to hit to all fields, as this past week against New Town the lefty showed tremendous opposite field power bashing two of those doubles over the head of the left fielder.   

Team’s generally like to shade left hand-hitters to pull, but defenses will be mistaken if they choose this path to defend Hopp.

Jason Terry, Pitcher-Infielder, New Town

The Titans are one of the lucky teams out there—they’ve gotten to play all of THREE games.

En route to its 2-1 record, New Town has proven that they’re going to hit the ball and they’re going to hit it far.

One of the players already making his presence felt is senior Jason Terry, who has ignited the middle of the Titans order by batting .545 (6 for 11, one double, one triple) with five RBIs and four runs scored.

Terry has also proven to be an asset on the mound, capturing a complete game win where he struck out eight over the seven innings and allowed just three runs.

The senior also brings a level of versatility to the diamond. When he’s not pitching, Terry can excel at third base, shortstop or second base—a valuable luxury for any coach to have.

Franklin Softball

Honestly, looking over the scores and stats for this unit, I simply couldn’t narrow it down to one person. In wins over Dundalk, Milford Mill and Western Tech, the Indians have outscored their opponents 55-0. 

Where to begin?

Well, junior Jackie White is batting .875 (7 for 8) with eight runs, 7 RBIs and three home runs. She’s also drawn five walks.  Sophomore Tory Sobota boasts a .636 average (7 for 11) with five runs, five RBIs, two doubles and one homer.

Senior Rachel Rubin hasn’t even been retired yet this season. She’s only 2 for 2 at the plate, but has drawn five walks and laid down one sacrifice bunt.

All impressive numbers, but I could just go down the Franklin lineup and include everyone.

Pitching-wise, Tory Sobota, Mary Sobota and Sarah Karsh have combined for 15 innings of scoreless ball, allowing just two hits and three walks in those innings. Their combined WHIP (walks and hits divided by innings pitched) is 0.33. (Generally, a WHIP of around 1.00 is considered stellar.)

With so much success early on for all these players throughout all the different teams, there’s no telling what they can do when they finally hit their respective strides as we travel on into the season.